THE WEEK AHEAD | NOV. 2 -- NOV. 8 | Television

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

Published: November 2, 2008

Television

Ginia Bellafante

''BROTHERHOOD,'' the Showtime drama of ethnic rivalries and urban corruption in Providence, R.I. -- the city once ruled by the notorious Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., known as Buddy -- has never generated the buzz of the network's highest-rated series, ''Dexter,'' and it is a shame that it has gone missing. ''Brotherhood,'' which returns for a third season Sunday at 8 p.m., is richly plotted, directed with slow, tense silences and spare in its judgments. The cast is without a weak link: the sublime Fionnula Flanagan is the not altogether selfless matriarch of the Caffee family; Jason Isaacs and Jason Clarke are her warring sons; and Brian F. O'Byrne, who starred to great acclaim in ''The Coast of Utopia'' on Broadway last season, is their thuggish, bastard cousin, newly arrived from Belfast.

Viewing not quite as highbrow arrives Tuesday at 11 p.m. on WE in the form of the six-part documentary series ''SEX CHANGE HOSPITAL.'' Here the lives of transgender men and women (or rather women-to-men and men-to-women) are followed as they under undergo gender-reassignment surgery in Colorado under the supervision of Dr. Marci Bowers, a specialist in the field who is transgender herself. Dr. Bowers is known as the rock star of transgender surgery, and her patients represent just about every imaginable demographic.

PHOTO: Jason Clarke, left, and Jason Isaacs of the Showtime series ''Brotherhood.'' (PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAIRE FOLGER/SHOWTIME)